The present invention relates to a flexible drive for rotating a cooling fan located in a vehicle having a transverse mounted engine.
In most road vehicles, a radiator is located in a plane traversing the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. A propeller type fan driven by the engine is used to draw cooling air through the radiator. When the engine of the vehicle is mounted traverse to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, difficulties are encountered in driving the fan. In most transverse engine applications, electric motors are used to drive the cooling fan. The electric motors are, however, power limited due to the available space and the amount of electrical energy available in the vehicle. It has been proposed in the past to use a right angle drive constructed out of belts, shafts, and beveled gears, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,658,166 and 3,613,645, to drive the cooling fan. Such an arrangement, however, is complex and expensive. It has also been proposed by the assignee of this application in U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,272 to use a flexible shaft to drive the cooling fan. The disadvantage of the flexible shaft arrangement illustrated in this patent lies in the difficulty and loss of efficiency in locating the flexible shaft in the engine compartment.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive and simple drive for the cooling fan of a vehicle having a transverse mounted engine.
It is another object of the invention to provide an efficient and inexpensive drive for transmitting the required horsepower to the cooling fan of a vehicle having a transverse mounted engine.
It is a more specific object of the invention to use a flexible shaft to accomplish the foregoing objects.